The Litmus Test for Your Elevator Pitch

Whatever it is you are selling, we all know that you need to craft and deliver a good elevator pitch.

But...

How do you know if your elevator pitch was effective?

Short Answer: You measure the effectiveness of your elevator pitch by the nature of response you get from a person who is qualified to comment.

Your elevator pitch matters a lot because the effectiveness of your elevator pitch will also determine how much longer you will get attention from the recipient of the elevator pitch. If you are selling or trying to raise money, a good elevator pitch will increase the chances and a bad one will severely decrease the chances.

Assuming that you are talking to someone who is qualified in the space, here are few such responses in the order of their effectiveness

1. Hmm..What were you saying..
Effectiveness: Very Low

You lost them at Hello. Your pitch was either very confusing or so bad that the recipient got stumped in some way. This is a response that is from someone who is recovering from your elevator-pitch-assault.

2. Interesting..
Effectiveness: Low

In general, this means it is "not interesting." In other words, the pitch is so bland that it is not worth commenting on it any further. It is time again to get back to the drawing board.

3. Tell me more..
Effectiveness: Depends

This is one response that will send mixed signals. If you watch their body language especially their eyes and tone of voice, you should get a clue as to whether the response was positive or negative in nature.

If there is a hint of curiosity, then you are in the green zone.

If there is a hint of sarcasm, then what they are thinking is that it's a stupid idea. They want to open the Pandora's box to see how much more stupidity is embedded in the idea. Surely, you are in the red zone.

4. Now, how do you do that?
Effectiveness: Moderate

It is a variation of asking - "So, what is the secret sauce behind this?"

You have now picked their curiosity and they want more. Depending on what they hear, they might continue to be interested or they will simply satisfy their curiosity and move on.

5. Cool. Is nobody else doing this already?
Effectiveness: High

This is a response that indicates that what you are presenting is so obvious that surely somebody else would have thought about it before. They wonder why was there such a long wait for someone to cook up a solution like this.

Note: Please don't take the responses literally. I have chosen typical responses else the discussion will become super abstract.